Meet your 2012 Seattle Seahawks – 53-man roster finalized

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Last year at this time, the Seahawks had three quarterbacks — none of whom was all that flashy, all that skilled or all that exciting. They had Tarvaris Jackson, Charlie Whitehurst and Josh Portis, and the team still ended up going 7-9 last season, with a highly competitive rush at the end of the schedule.

This year, not one of those QBs is on the roster. In their place are flashy, skilled and exciting newcomers — and there are just two of them. Rookie draftee Russell Wilson will be getting the start this weekend, and free-agent signee Matt Flynn will be an expensive but able and dependable backup. Portis, meanwhile, is now on Seattle’s practice squad.

Most of the attention this preseason was on the three-way QB competition among Wilson, Flynn and Jackson, the latter of whom was traded to the Buffalo Bills last week. But there were battles going on in every position.

And, just as in the QB competition, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was not afraid to choose skill over experience. In fact, nine of Seattle’s 10 picks from April’s NFL Draft are on the 53-man roster, which the Seahawks have finalized this week. The 10th pick, Korey Toomer, is on the practice squad.

This weekend, as Carroll and his staff made final preparations for the start of the regular season, they trimmed the squad down from 75 players to 53. The hopefuls had gotten several months of training to show their stuff — and even at the end of training camp, there were a couple surprises.

The biggest surprise was the release of tight end Kellen Winslow, who was thought to be a lock for the Seahawks. Seattle acquired him from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in May, and he was expected to add depth and ability to a tight end corps led by Zach Miller. Apparently, Carroll had other things in mind. Now the Seahawks will need Anthony McCoy and newly signed Evan Moore to fill the void.

Also somewhat surprising was the exclusion of wide receiver Ricardo Lockette, who had become an interesting and promising prospect for the Seahawks. Though he was signed to Seattle’s practice squad, he lost out to other receivers who were on the bubble such as Ben Obomanu, Braylon Edwards and Charly Martin. Another surprise exclusion was WR Deon Butler, whom the Seahawks cut this weekend.

The Seahawks travel to Glendale, Ariz., this weekend to take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Kickoff is slated for 1:25 p.m. PDT. Here’s who will be suiting up for the season opener.